AU10/80/4

Letter from Edward Fielder in West Kilburn [Middlesex] to Andrew Underwood: - Rifle Day Holiday - the writer believed that when he was 7 or 8 [early 1870s] the Bedfordshire Rifle Volunteers used to camp for a week at the end of July in Ampthill Park near Katherine's Cross and were inspected on the cricket ground by an official from the War Office on the Friday afternoon, the occasion being a spectacle for people in Ampthill and the National Schools in Bedford Street received a half holiday; - the writer held the music for a bandsman playing in the Officer's Mess; - Lady Wensleydale "an old lady in a bath chair drawn by a donkey"used to give an annual treat to the National and Sunday Schools in early September on the lawn of Ampthill Park House known locally as "the tea drinking", by then the British School has been closed for some years; James Lowther (later Baron Ullswater and Speaker of the House of Commons) assisted his grandmother to dole out buns to the children; - James Lowther read the lessons in Ampthill church when on holiday, his father, William was a Manager of the National School and had been an attaché abroad; - the writer knew Rev.Charles Billington, formerly at the National School, well

13 Jun 1956

From: 1870 To: 1956

item

Underwood, Andrew Grimmer,
Fielder, Edward,
Billington, Charles,
Lowther, William,
Wensleydale, Lady,
Ullswater, James W.Lowther, Viscount

rifle volunteers, bands, Ampthill National School, Sunday Schools, tea, churches, House of Commons, clergy names index, AMPTHILL, Ampthill Park, Ampthill Park Lodge, Ampthill Bedford Street